The Weekly Shtikle - Ki Sisa / Parah

A special Weekly Shtikle mazal tov to my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, Esty & Tiki Yeres, on completing the Jerusalem Marathon today, leading a team that raised over $20K for Yachad in memory of my sister-in-law, Batsheva Yeres, a"h. Chazak ve'ematz!

After listing the ingredients and process for the production of the shemen hamishchah, the Torah then goes on to detail what it will be used for. Among them (30:27-28) are the shulchan and all its utensils, the menorah and its utensils and the outer mizbei'ach and all its utensils. The term "kol keilav/keileha" is used for the shulchan and mizbei'ach but for the menorah, simply "keileha" with the notable absence of the word kol. Shaarei Aharon explains that the shulchan and mizbei'ach had more utensils associated with them than the menorah. Additionally, some of the utensils associated with the shulchan and mizbei'ach did not serve the larger items directly, such as the utensils needed for the preparation of the lechem hapanim or the korbanos whereas all of the utensils associated with the menorah were used directly to serve it. Therefore, the Torah needed to be more inclusive with regards to the shulchan and mizbei'ach to make it clear that all of those ancillary utensils are also to be anointed with the shemen hamishchah.

Interestingly, a little later, we find that the structure is flipped. When listing the items to be constructed it states (31:8) "v'es hashulchan v'es keileha, v'es hamenorah hatehorah v'es kol keileha." This time it is the menorah that gets the kol treatment and not the shulchan. In this case, Meshech Chachmah explains that we are referring to all of the components of the menorah including the cups, flowers and buttons that were actually part of the body of the menorah. These are independently significant when discussing the construction and thus, in that sense, there are for more "utensils" involved with the menorah than with the shulchan. However, since these items are mostly all fused together in the final product, they are not significant when discussing the anointing whereas the utensils used with the shulchan were not attached and therefore, more numerous with regards to anointing.

Have a good Shabbos.

Eliezer Bulka
WeeklyShtikle@weeklyshtikle.com

Shtikle Blog Weekly Roundup:

Dikdukian: Kol Annnos

Dikdukian: Yeiaseh vs.Taaseh by Ephraim Stulberg

Dikdukian: Velo Shasu

Dikdukian: Minimizing Sin

Dikdukian: Need to Bring this Up

Dikdukian: Oops (Parah)

Dikdukian: Let Your Heart Not be Desolate (Parah)

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